Analyst upgrades:

• Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of UBS (NYSE: UBS) to Buy from Hold following the company's Q3 update as they believe the quarter marks a turning point.
• Merill raised BP Plc (NYSE: BP) and Total SA (NYSE: TOT) to Neutral from Underperform.
• DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH) was lifted to Hold from Sell at Soleil.
  
• Friedman Billings upgraded Sovereign Bancorp (NYSE: SOV) to Market Perform from Underperform as they believe the company's deposits are showing stability despite the massive sell-off.
  
• Kaufman Bros. raised Longtop Financial (NYSE: LFT) to Buy from Hold on valuation as they believe Chinese software service stocks now reflect the investment risks.
• Lear (NYSE: LEA) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Citigroup.

Analyst downgrades:

• Morgan Stanley downgraded eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) to Equal Weight from Overweight citing checks that indicate deteriorating trends are worst than expected.
  
• Juniper (NASDAQ: JNPR) and Pediatrix Medical (NYSE: PDX) were downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
  
• Merrill cut StatoilHydro (NYSE: STO) to Underperform from Neutral.
  
• HSBC (NYSE: HBC) was lowered to Market Perform from Outperform at Keefe Bruyette.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: InfoSpace, Parexel and Idearc Inc were today's noteworthy initiations:

• B. Riley believes InfoSpace (NASDAQ: INSP) is now positioned to further leverage the growing online search market following divestitures. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $13 target.
  
• Oppenheimer assumed coverage of Parexel (NASDAQ: PRXL) with an Outperform rating and $70 target, as they believe the company is well-positioned to benefit from positive CRO industry trends and sees room for continued growth.
  
• Wachovia initiated Idearc (NYSE: IAR) with an Underperform rating, citing the challenging industry and cyclical pressures.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Morgan Keegan initiated GMX Resources (NASDAQ: GMXR) with an Outperform rating.
  
• Goldman assumed coverage of Cigna (NYSE: CI) with a Buy rating.
  
• Merrill started PharMerica (NYSE: PMC) with a Neutral rating.

Barron's ran a piece today [subscription] on an interesting list that has some history. Back when I was at the hedge fund, we found a list of interesting stocks produced by boutique investment firm, B. Riley. This list, called Cash Rich Technology Stocks (CRTS), was a favorite among value investors in the technology sector.

According to Barron's, this list screens for tech stocks trading at or near net cash per share. More specifically, the CRTS looks for stocks where:

• Net cash for all the companies considered was at least 35% of market cap.
  
• Riley eliminated companies with market caps under $40 million or high cash-burn rates.
  
• They crossed off those its analysts believed to have business models with little chance of success.

So, which stocks came up?

JC Penney (NYSE: JCP) is trading off almost 4% after cutting its holiday sales outlook.

InfoSpace (NASDAQ: INSP) is up 7% after announcing a special dividend.

Telestone Technologies (NASDAQ: TSTC) is trading up 26% on strong earnings.

Advanced Life Sciences (NASDAQ: ADLS) is up on news of a successful trial of one of its drugs.

Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) is down 10% on weak earnings.

NovaStar Financial (NYSE: NFI) is down 39% on poor earnings and the possibility that its shares could be de-listed.

Stocks trading in the pre-market may open at different prices in the regular session.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com

Chase Norlin has spent over a decade in the online space. For example, he was a senior business development executive at ValueClick (NASDAQ: VCLK). He also served as an executive at InfoSpace (NASDAQ: INSP). Oh, and he also helped to create Sony's (NYSE: SNE) first online photo sharing service.

His latest gig: Pixsy. It's a fast-growing company in the online video space.

Well, this week, I had a chance to catch up with Chase.

Q: How are things at Pixsy?

A: Image and Video Search are the fastest growing consumer search verticals on the web. In fact, Image Search is 10% of Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) traffic and grows 100% every year. We said early on, "if image and video search are so popular, why doesn't every website have it?" And that's the driving growth behind our business. Pixsy is unique in that we can provide image and video search to a website, under their brand, with content tailored to that specific vertical, and enable that site to have their media searched or combined with the Pixsy index. All of this provides great value to publishers: new search traffic, users stay on the site longer, new content tailored to that site, and new ad inventory is created. Additionally, the service provides great value to content providers as they receive free, targeted traffic from users performing image and video search queries. We now have a backlog of 8,000 providers trying to get content into the Pixsy index as a result.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Countrywide Financial (CFC), Toll Brothers (TOL), United Parcel Service (UPS) and OSI Pharma (OSIP) were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Both Friedman Billings and Wachovia upgraded Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) to Market Perform from Underperform following the $2 billion investment by the Bank of America (BAC).

• JMP Securities upgraded Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) to Market Perform from Underperform and believes the worst news on housing is reflected and that fears over a disappearing jumbo loan market are overblown.

• Matrix upgraded United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) to Buy from Hold to reflect strong demand from overseas shipping.

• Wachovia raised OSI Pharma (NASDAQ: OSIP) to Market Perform from Underperform on valuation...

OTHER UPGRADES:

• UBS raised Joy Global (NASDAQ: JOYG) to Buy from Neutral.

• China Netcom (NYSE: CN) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS.

• Roth Capital upgraded IMAX Corp (NASDAQ: IMAX) to Buy from Hold.

• WedBush raised InfoSpace (NASDAQ: INSP) to Buy from Hold.

• Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) was upgraded to Hold from Sell.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

Broader credit market worries sacked stock futures Thursday after French banking group BNP Paribas suspended three funds -- tying up client investments -- saying it could not accurately value them due to a lack of liquidity throughout the U.S. securities market. The news sent U.S. bank stocks lower overseas.

The Dow is poised to retreat after padding the week's gains by 153.56 in Wednesday's trading. The Dow has climbed nearly 475 points since Friday's 281-point plunge.

Companies reporting earnings Thursday include HealthSouth Corp. (NYSE: HLS) and Dynegy Inc. (NYSE: DYN).

The Labor Department will give its weekly report on new unemployment claims at 8:30 a.m.

The Nikkei rose 1 percent to 17,240.99, pushed higher on news that Barneys New York has passed on a buyout bid from Japan's Fast Retailing. The FTSE 100 rose 1.33%.

In overseas currency markets, the dollar gained 0.3% on the euro, but slipped 0.7% against the yen.

Company news

AIG (NYSE: AIG) posted unexpectedly high income in its second-quarter report Wednesday, but cited cramping from weakness in the housing market.

News Corp, (NYSE: NWS) fresh off its successful bid for Dow Jones, reported higher profits over last year's fourth quarter.

Online search provider Infospace Inc. (NYSE: INSP) slipped overseas after reporting losses of 86 cents per share -- far worse than analysts' expectations of 12-cent losses.

Yes, it's June already, and as the heat begins to rise, so does rumor rage.

PACKETEER INC (NASDAQ: PKTR)

On the block? If some investors have their way it is. The developer of wide area network, or WAN, Application Optimization systems expects first quarter revenues to fall about 20% from the fourth quarter's $42.7M. Leading the insurgency is "activist investor" Elliott Associates which holds 6.3% of the shares. In a letter to the firm's board, Elliott wrote that the company has "proven unable" to take advantage of its "leading technology." Better to be in the arms of a bigger company? The vultures think so.

GUITAR CENTER INC (NASDAQ: GTRC)

Quicker than you can strum your guitar, this number appears to be up. Up for sale. The information is coming faster than a high strung solo. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS) is playing the lead. What an auction it will be. For the leading retailer of musical instruments, the stock disappoints, the direct response business is out of tune. A Goldman analyst reportedly said the company is a turnaround candidate, but may sell. Talk about blowing your own horn. We hear the LBOs are lined up right outside the Westlake Village headquarters in California. Everyone have a number?

INFOSPACE INC (NASDAQ: INSP)

How many pesetas, uh Euros, does it take to make about a billion dollars? Ask Spain's LaNetro Zed. That's about what some think they're offering to buy InfoSpace, the developer of tools and technology that helps "regular" folk find content and information on the Internet or on their mobile. Privately-held LaNetro Zed provides mobile phone content and services. What's the hook here that they'd pay that much? Access to the U.S. market, of course. The answer, by the way, is about 800M Euros.

OFFICE DEPOT INC (NYSE: ODP)

If you just lined up $1B worth of borrowing, which could go up to $1.25B, what would you do with it? Buy something, maybe? Sound like a good idea? Well, that's what Office Depot just did, and may do. Now who are they going to buy? OfficeMax Inc (NYSE: OMX), maybe? Maybe. If true, then, along with Staples Inc (NASDAQ: SPLS), there would be just two biggies in retail office supplies, and the Depot would be number one.

OPENWAVE SYSTEMS INC (NASDAQ: OPWV)

And we're off! The stock has been on an upward trend for about a month. Volume is increasing. Sybase Inc (NYSE: SY) is in the lead to buy the phone browser and messaging company. What about Harbinger's push on the inside? Now it's BridgePort Networks in the pack. Will Openwave overtake it? The field is tightening. Others could move up and take the lead. No one knows for sure how this one gwill end, folks. What a finish it's going to be!

DILLARD'S INC (NYSE: DDS)

The founders may be seeking "strategic alternatives." Eyes wide open, please.

This week, the biggies of wireless attended the CTIA conference in Florida. As always, there were some big announcements, such as from Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) regarding its huge mobile build-out of WiMAX.

Dipanshu Sharma, the founder of V-Enable, was also there (his firm develops voice-activated wireless applications). Here are some of his takeaways:

Mobile TV
Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) MediaFLO handsets got a lot of attention. Last year mobile TV was dominated by companies using IP streaming for watching TV on the phone. Streaming over IP clogs carriers' networks, so this year both MedioFLO and DVB-H were showcased. It was mostly MediaFLO that stole the show for mobile TV. Verizon already had a MediaFLO-enabled handset, and Cingular has promised to launch by end of this year. I checked out the phones myself and have to say the video quality was almost HD. For the near term, the service is marred by lack of channels (mobiTV has more channels), but I am sure QUALCOMM (NASDAQ: QCOM) will resolve that sooner than later.

Slim phones
Lots and lots of slim phones. I saw one Samsung phone that was slim and wide, rather ugly. On the other hand, Samsung's music phone with screens on both sides was quite innovative.

LBS (Location Based Services) and local search
We saw a few LBS companies demonstrating use of phones' GPS capabilities for navigation. Telenav and NIM have commercial products for the same. As for local search and 411, V-Enable announced that its product won best of show (wireless software) at CTIA by Laptop Magazine. Infospace (NASDAQ: INSP) announced a free local search product for RIM's (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry.

Mobile advertising
I probably met so many mobile advertising companies that have differentiators that sound all the same that I can't even remember their names. Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) also announced its mobile advertising product. It's unclear if there is room for so many mobile advertising startups to exit, especially when Yahoo! and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) are entering the market very fast.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: RadioShack Corp (RSH), Juniper Networks, Inc (JNPR), H.B. Fuller Co (FUL) and Sepracor Inc (SEPR) were today's more notable downgrades:

• Morgan Stanley downgraded RadioShack (NYSE: RSH) to Underweight from Equal-Weight on concerns over the company's wireless fundamentals and top-line growth.

• Juniper Networks (NASDAQ: JNPR) was downgraded to Strong Sell from Buy at Matrix USA. The firm sees downside to the intrinsic value calculation of $12 given the company's deteriorating fundamentals.

• H.B. Fuller Co (NYSE: FUL) was cut to Sell from Hold at Gabelli following a meeting with management to reflect the recent management exists and the broker's expectation for a challenging first-half of 2007.

• Sepracor (NASDAQ: SEPR) was cut to Underperform from Market Perform at Friedman Billings, as the firm believes generic availability of Ambien may be a bigger challenge to Seprecor's Lunesta than investors expect.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc (NYSE: JTX) was cut to Underweight from Market Weight at Thomas Wiesel as they believe the potential near-term competitive trends coupled with potential issues with rising financial product contribution will weigh on valuation.

• Bear Stearns cut Cerner Corp (NASDAQ: CERN) to Peer Perform from Outperform.

• Matrix USA downgraded InfoSpace, Inc (NASDAQ: INSP) to Hold from Buy on valuation.

• Prudential cut Unilever plc (NYSE: UL) to Neutral from Overweight.

• Breen Murray downgraded Century Casinos, Inc (NASDAQ: CNTY) to Hold from Buy.

• Cowen downgraded PeopleSupport, Inc (NASDAQ: PSPT) to Neutral from Outperform based on near-term visibility concerns.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

MOST NOTEWOTHY: ConocoPhillips (COP), InfoSpace, Inc (INSP), Verizon Communications (VZ) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) were some of today's more notable downgrades:

• Goldman Sachs downgraded ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) to Neutral from Buy.

• Stanford cut InfoSpace Inc (NASDAQ: INSP) to Sell from Hold as the firm believes shares are overvalued since the company has no clear plans to reignite growth.

• Buckingham downgraded Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) to Neutral from Accumulate.

• Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) was cut to Hold from Strong Buy at Matrix as the firm believes growing competition is driving down selling prices and narrowing margins.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Goldman downgraded Anadarko Petroleum Corp (NYSE: APC) to Sell from Neutral.

• Merriman cut Fiberstars, Inc (NASDAQ: FBST) to Neutral from Buy.

• Bank of America downgraded Dollar General (NYSE: DG) to Neutral from Buy.

• Cantor cut AudioCodes Ltd (NASDAQ: AUDC) to Hold from Buy following the company's lowered Q1 outlook.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).